Regulating the BBC

‘Finally, there is the situation of the BBC, which provides services that are primarily free at the point of delivery in return for about £2.5 billion per annum in tax payers ’ money – not far off one day’s gross domestic product for the U.K. The increasing tendency of the BBC to launch services or markets beyond its traditional public service broadcasting remit, such as web-searching, has aroused considerable public interest and could raise difficult competition issues ’ (Vickers 2002: 4)